บทวิจารณ์จากเบอร์ลิน (ฉบับย่อ)

THE DEATH OF THE REGIETHEATER (DIRECTOR’S THEATRE)

CHETANA NAGAVAJARA

The new production of Beethoven’s “Fidelio” , which I saw at the Staatsoper Berlin on 7 October 16, has baffled German critics. It contains so many hidden messages that require some distance for any rational “reading”. And I humbly offer my reading as someone coming from so far and a committed lover of Western music.

Musically, it was the most LYRICAL interpretation I had ever heard. All singers shared that appraoch, except the tenor who sang Florestan: he was excessively “dramatic”. Barenboim turned the Staatskapelle into a chamber orchestra, and it worked marvellously; I had never heard him conduct with such refinement. It reminds me of the good old days when he was playing exquisite chamber musich with his late wife and friends. The star of the evening was definitely the orchestra; some of the singers were a little strained.

Let’s not forget, Barenboim is one of the greatest interpretators of Beethoven on the piano. The Director, the veteran Harry Kupfer, went along with that and put a grand piano and a bust of Beethoven on stage in the opening and the last scenes. The singers and members of the chorus were forced to carry the score of the opera in their hands, as if this were a CONCERTANTE performance. The fact is that so many great operatic performances of today take the form of concerts given in a concert hall. That is one way of adhereing to the authenticity of an opera without having the Regietheater distort the original work. This production is not merely a celebration of the greatness of Beethoven, concretised and made visible on stage, as most critics would have it, it is also a strong statement on the vagaries of today’s theatre practice in the West, which need to be set right.

The message is potent: respect the original, you narcissistic theatre directors! The backdrop of the first and final scenes is the Musikvereinsaal of Vienna, a deliberate slap on the face of contemporary theater directors and audiences. The implication could be that the public of today is so ignorant that the theatre directors can fool them around whichever way they like. But the fact remains that the premiere of “Fidelio” took place at the Theater an der Wien, and not at the Musikvereinsaal, which was not there yet. One can go on deciphering hidden clues here and there.

All in all, this production of “Fidelio” is an unmistakable pronouncement of the death sentence on the Regietheater —- and also a recant on the part of some of the leading figures involved in the production. It was musically very distinguished. That is what matters.

(I shall write a more detailed review later)